Board of Directors

Note

Note: Matt Flannery, Co-founder and CEO; and Premal Shah, President also serve on the Board of Directors

Julie Hanna | Chair of the Board, Kiva

Julie Hanna is a serial entrepreneur who is driven by her belief in information technology as a democratizing force for social, political and business disruption. She has spent the last twenty years pioneering products that have allowed tens of millions around the world to connect, communicate and collaborate. Her experience creating innovative products and new business models now informs her work as a board member, angel investor and mentor to fellow entrepreneurs and CEO’s. In addition to serving as Chair of the Board at Kiva, Julie is a member of the board at Socialtext, the leading social networking SaaS provider for small and medium businesses, and an advisor to leading technology incubator, Idealab, as well as a number of internet startups and social ventures in the U.S. and Europe. Serving in roles that ranged from founding executive to founder & CEO, Julie has helped build five consumer internet and software companies. Among them, onebox.com, (acquired by OpenWave Nasdaq; OPNWV) the fastest growing internet communications service in 1999; Portola, the first internet mail system for businesses where she was instrumental to the acquisition by Netscape; Scalix, a pioneer and global leader in open source software and Healtheon, now WebMD (Nasdaq: WBMD).

Reid Hoffman | Co-Founder and Executive Chairman, LinkedIn

Reid Hoffman is Executive Chairman and a co-founder of LinkedIn. Prior to LinkedIn, Reid was Executive Vice President of PayPal where he was in charge of all business relationships: business development, corporate development, international, government relations, and banking/payments infrastructure. During his tenure at PayPal, Reid was instrumental to the acquisition by eBay and was responsible for partnerships with Intuit, Visa, MasterCard and Wells Fargo. Reid also has held management roles in significant technology companies, including Fujitsu Software Corporation and Apple. In addition to LinkedIn, Reid serves on the Board of Directors for SixApart, Kiva.org, and Mozilla Corporation. Reid graduated with distinction from Stanford University with a BS in Symbolic Systems and from Oxford University with a Master's degree in philosophy and a Marshall scholarship.

Amy Klement | VP Investments, Omidyar Network

Amy leads Omidyar Network's Access to Capital initiative, investing in and supporting organizations that create economic opportunity for millions of people living at the base of the pyramid. Focusing on Microfinance, Entrepreneurship, and Property Rights, her team concentrates their investments in India and sub-Saharan Africa. Amy also plays a leadership role in Omidyar Network's strategic approach to the mobile technology and consumer payments sectors, with a particular focus on the developing world. Amy has spent much of her career at eBay, Inc., joining PayPal as one of its earliest employees 11 years ago. As Vice President of Product, she spearheaded the creation of PayPal's enormously successful payments platform, facilitated the company's oversees expansion into Europe and Asia, and was instrumental in the launch of PayPal Mobile. Amy transitioned to eBay as Vice President, Relationship Marketing to lead email, onsite, and other retention marketing channels. Most recently, as Vice President, Product & Strategy Operations, she drove the development of eBay's long-term product vision and led the User Experience and Design organization. In addition, Amy helped shape the strategy and subsequently launch both Kiva and MicroPlace, which fueled her passion for the microfinance sector. Earlier in her career, Amy worked in corporate strategy and development at Gap Inc. and as an analyst at JP Morgan. Amy holds a BS in mathematics from Bucknell Univesity, where she graduated Summa Cum Laude and Phi Beta Kappa.

Tabreez Verjee | Co-founder and Managing Partner, Uprising

Tabreez Verjee is a three-time entrepreneur and investor who co-founded Uprising to invest in and relentlessly support mission driven technology entrepreneurs pursuing epic endeavors that matter. Some of the recent superheroes that he has backed include the people behind Change.org, Upworthy, Amicus, Calm, ClassDojo, Lumo Body Tech, and Purpose.
 
Tabreez is also an active member of the board of directors at Kiva.org, the world's first crowdsourced lending platform dedicated to connecting people for the purpose of alleviating poverty, where he was also one of Kiva’s first financial backers.
 
Tabreez began his career at Bain & Company and left to co-found a boutique finance company that raised $150 million for innovative media financings and completed landmark deals including a $30M securitization of music royalties for heavy metal band Iron Maiden.  He then moved over to the technology and internet space where he helped lead the internet music company Sonique to be the fifth most downloaded application on the Internet in 1999 and was responsible for spearheading its sale for over $70 million. After Sonique, Tabreez co-founded Global Asset Capital which began incubating start-ups and making angel investments and grew over six years into a venture capital firm with $500 million in committed capital and over 40 portfolio companies in the U.S. and Europe.
 
Outside of work Tabreez loves being a dad, spending time with people he loves, playing tennis and other competitive sports, building tribes, planning clever pranks and grand gestures, adventuring outdoors, and experiencing life to the fullest
 

Alex Edelstein | CEO, Servio

Alex Edelstein is the CEO of Servio, a leader in the content marketing space. Previously, Alex worked at Netscape, where he product managed the early Netscape Navigator, Microsoft, where he was on the design team for Microsoft Exchange and what would become Microsoft Outlook, and Inktomi, where he ran its seminal Search Engine business unit in the late 90s.

Geoff Davis | Former CEO, Unitus

Geoff Davis is a serial entrepreneur turned social entrepreneur, who believes in the power of using business principles to solve a wide variety of social problems.  He has more than fifteen years' experience in the microfinance space, including co-founding a microfinance program in Mexico, working with Muhammad Yunus in creating the Grameen Foundation and Grameen Investments, and as the CEO of microfinance accelerator Unitus, which he guided from startup to global leader in microfinance.  Geoff also co-founded the Unitus Equity Fund, the first commercial microfinance venture fund.  In addition to serving on Kiva's Board, Geoff is a member of the World Economic Forum's Global Agenda Council on Social Innovation, Chairman at Waste Ventures, which incubates solid waste management companies, and member of the Board at Vittana, empowering young people around the world through education.  Geoff has been named a Young Global Leader by the World Economic Forum, Entrepreneur of The Year by Ernst & Young, an Entrepreneurial Thought Leader by Stanford University, and one of Seattle’s “40 under 40” by the Puget Sound Business Journal. He earned degrees from Brigham Young and Harvard universities.

Advisors

Andrew Chen | Blogger and Entrepreneur

Andrew Chen is a blogger and entrepreneur focused on consumer internet, metrics and user growth. He is an advisor/angel for early-stage startups including AppSumo, Cardpool (acquired by Safeway), Catchfree, Gravity, Mocospace, Launchbit, Qik (acquired by Skype), Wanelo, WeeWorld, Votizen, and is also a 500 Startups mentor. Previously, he was an Entrepreneur-in-Residence at Mohr Davidow Ventures (MDV), a Silicon Valley-based firm with $2B under management. Prior to MDV, Andrew was director of product marketing at Audience Science, where he started up the ad network business that today reaches over 380 million uniques, where he also co-authored a patent on personalized advertising, USPTO #7,882,175. He holds a B.S. in Applied Mathematics from the University of Washington.

Dave McClure | Founder, Paypal Developer Network

Dave McClure has worked in the Silicon Valley high-tech industry for over fifteen years and is on the Board of Directors of Unitus, a venture accelerator for microfinance institutions around the world. Dave also helps run the Silicon Valley Microfinance Network and co-chairs the Silicon Valley Search SIG for SDForum. His most recent positions include VP of Marketing at SimplyHired and Director of Marketing at PayPal, where he started PayPal'€™s Developer Network, a technical marketing & education program comprised of over 300,000 web merchants & developers.  Dave is currently an advisor & investor in several startups including Feedster, HealthUnity, and WellFund.  Dave holds a bachelor's degree from the Johns Hopkins University.

Doug Michelman | Global Head of Corporate Relations, Visa

Doug Michelman leads the global corporate relations function for Visa Inc. and oversees all corporate relations activities at Visa Inc., including global media relations, industry analyst relations, public affairs, issues management and stakeholder communications to financial institution partners, merchants and employees. He is responsible for developing and executing communication programs that support Visa Inc.'s brand, marketing, product and technology strategies as well as supporting executive and digital communication strategies.

Michelman joined Visa U.S.A. as executive vice president of corporate relations in January 2003. As steward of the corporation's reputation, Michelman served as the chief communications strategist for Visa U.S.A. Prior to joining Visa, Michelman served as regional president and senior partner at Fleishman-Hillard. In this position, he managed Fleishman-Hillard's West Coast operations and oversaw the company's collective technology communications resources as CEO of Fleishman-Hillard Technology Consulting Worldwide (TCW).

During the course of his career, Michelman has developed corporate and investor relations communications programs, counseled clients on crisis communications and directed corporate image campaigns. In addition to various roles within Fleishman-Hillard both in the U.S. and internationally, Michelman’s extensive communications experience also includes staff positions in the press office for two presidential campaigns and work as an associate producer for local and national television news programs.

Michelman earned a B.A. in political science from Duke University in North Carolina.

George Lee | Product Manager, Facebook Platform Growth

George is a Product Manager at Facebook where he leads core development of Facebook Credits and is currently responsible for platform distribution and the canvas business. Prior to this current role, he was the co-founder of two venture-funded startups and spent over 5 years in various product management positions at PayPal/eBay. George started his career as a Technology Consultant at Andersen Consulting and holds a BS in Electrical Engineering from the UCSD Jacobs School of Engineering.

Jessica Jackley | Co-Founder, Kiva

Jessica is a Cofounder of Kiva, and served as Kiva's first Chief Marketing Officer. Jessica was first inspired to start Kiva in the spring of 2004, working in East Africa with rural entrepreneurs. She became deeply moved by their stories of success, and wanted to provide a way for her friends and family to participate in the next chapter of those stories.Jessica is currently Founder and CEO of ProFounder (www.profounder.com), a platform providing new ways for small business entrepreneurs in the U.S. to access start-up capital through crowdfunding and community involvement.Jessica has also worked with the Stanford Center for Social Innovation, Amazon.com, Potentia Media, the International Foundation, World Vision, and others. Jessica is an active advisor and board member on a number of organizations championing microfinance, women's issues, tech, and the arts. She holds an MBA from the Stanford Graduate School of Business with Certificates in Global Management and Public Management, and a BA in Philosophy and Political Science from Bucknell University. She teaches Global Entrepreneurship at the Marshall School of Business at USC, and is a Visiting Scholar at Stanford's Center for Philanthropy and Civil Society.

Joe Greenstein | Co-founder/CEO of Flixster

Joe Greenstein is co-founder & CEO of Flixster & Rottentomatoes (acquired by TimeWarner in 2011). Prior to Flixster, Joe was part of the startup team and Director of Product Management at Edusoft, a curriculum and assessment platform for public school districts. Edusoft grew to serve over 4M students nationwide before being acquired by Houghton-Mifflin in 2003. While still in college, Joe was a co-founder of CoreMetrics – an early provider of real-time web analytics which was later acquired by IBM. Joe likes hot dogs, kind people and long walks on the beach.

John Hiler | CEO and Co-Founder, Xanga.com

John is the CEO and co-founder of Xanga.com, one of the world'€™s largest weblog communities. Prior to Xanga, John he consulted to software, media, and wireless companies at Mercer Management Consulting. As an Adjunct Professor at NYC, John teaches a course on Internet Civilization and his current research interests are in Social Capital, Emergent Journalism, and Cyber governance.  John graduated with a B.A. in Economics and Asian Studies from Dartmouth University.

Ken Howery | Founders Fund, PayPal Co-founder

Ken is a co-founder and Managing Partner at Founders Fund, a San Francisco-based venture capital group founded in 2005 with several hundred million dollars under management, which seeks to provide the capital, insights and support required to build a company from the ground up with a non-traditional, pro-founder focus. Ken has led or co-led investments in a number of companies at Founders Fund including Facebook and Quantcast. Ken is a co-founder of PayPal and served as the company's first CFO. While at PayPal, Ken helped raise over $200 million in private financing, worked on the company's public offerings, and assisted in the company's $1.5 billion sale to eBay. Ken has also been a member of the research and trading teams at Clarium Capital Management, a global macro hedge fund based in San Francisco, and at Thiel Capital Management, a multistrategy investment fund, where Ken made venture investments beginning in 1998, including leading the seed round in pioneering anti-spam firm IronPort (acquired by Cisco for $830 million). Ken has lectured on entrepreneurship at Stanford and Harvard Business School and has helped students develop business models at UC Berkeley and UT Austin's McCombs School of Business. Ken is a member of the World Economic Forum's Technology Pioneers Selection Committee and a member of the Council on Competitiveness. Ken received a BA in Economics from Stanford.

Kiran Jain | Attorney, Bingham McCutchen LLP

Kiran is an attorney at Bingham McCutchen, specializing in the finance practice. Kiran graduated from from Georgetown Law, where she participated in the Housing and Community Development Clinic that assisted low-income tenants in maintaining affordable housing and accessing low-interest credit. Prior to attending law school, Ms. Jain was an economics consultant in the International Transfer Pricing Group at Arthur Anderson LLP in New York, and Washington, D.C. Upon graduating from Columbia University, Ms. Jain served as a consultant to the United Nations' Framework Convention on Climate Change in Bonn, Germany. During the summer of 1997 and 1998, she studied language, history and community development in India. She served as an intern at the White House in 1996.

Phu Hoang

Phu came out of retirement to join Kiva in 2009 and served as Kiva's VP of Product Development. Phu left Viet Nam along with his family in April 1975, when he was 10 years old. He considers himself extremely fortunate in his life in America and is thrilled to be able to help others get a similar opportunity to improve their lives. Prior to Kiva, Phu spent over 11 years at Yahoo heading up Engineering for Yahoo's consumer web sites, advertising systems, and platform. His greatest gift in life is his wife Tamar and their three children: Jason, Grace, and Allison. Phu hurts himself frequently playing basketball, tennis, and poker. He studied at the University of Maryland, College Park and the University of California, Berkeley

Scott Smith | Attorney, Hanson Bridgett Marcus Vlahos Rudy LLP

Scott is an attorney at Hanson Bridgett, specializing in corporate and tax law. Scott has significant experience counseling nonprofits in connection with all aspects of operations and represents emerging companies in connection with entity formation issues, licensing and other technology related matters. Scott sits on the Advisory Board of MicroMentor, which connects low-income business owners to individuals who have successfully navigated business ownership or management in the same industry. Scott has a B.A. from California State University, Fresno, an M.A. from University of Southern California and a law degree from University of Houston.

Sundeep Ahuja | Co-founder, RichRelevance

Sundeep is Kiva's former Marketing Director, a role he filled from March of 2006 to June of 2007. He is currently co-founder of RichRelevance, a hosted automated merchandising engine for commerce sites. Sundeep also actively advises and consults for cause-oriented organizations in marketing and product capacities, leveraging product management experience from MySpace and eBay, finance experience from JPMorgan H&Q, and acting experience on several television shows. Sundeep holds a BS in Computer Science from Stanford University.

Yee Lee | Entrepreneur and Investor

Yee Lee has over fifteen years of product management and engineering experience at Silicon Valley companies. He was an early employee of PayPal and Slide and has launched three startups, one acquired by Google. Lee is an active investor and advisor to consumer internet companies and has helped over a dozen companies get off the ground, including SlideShare, Khush, GroupCard, Togetherville, and Wildfire. Yee is currently Chief Technology Officer of One Jackson, an innovative new online/mobile retail brand which he co-founded.